So we are once again on the stage at the Bristol Opera House in Bristol, Indiana, for the Elkhart Civic Theater's latest production, which is The Sound of Music.

It's a wonderful classic.

And guys, thank you so much for taking the time.

You are all three in the cast.

So we have Liam, Maddie and of course Brock.

You're back in the show.

I'm back in the show.

I'm excited to be back on stage.

Very good.

And this is a classic of course.

And so I'm going to start with the younger guys.

And what is your first recollection of this.

Are you were you excited to be in The Sound of Music.

And you know what really got you to audition for it and that.

So let's start with you, Liam.

Well, my mom has been a part of this theater for a long time, and she also is friends with Brock and got to know that this song was going on.

My girlfriend and I wanted to try an audition for it, and so I auditioned for Rolfe just to see what I could go for, because that's the only part that I could really comfortably fit in and I ended up here.

But you've got the better story.

I have been wanting to be in the side of music forever, and I'd been talking about wanting to be Liesel for months, since before I found out that Elkhart Civic was doing it.

And then when I found out they were doing it, I submitted my audition form as fast as I could because I was so excited to audition for it.

And now I'm Liesl.

So, so have you guys.

I think I overheard you saying that you've been in shows before here.

Not here.

This is my first show here.

First show here.

Awesome.

How about, you know, I've done a couple of shows here.

I've done awesome three.

So, Brock, what's it like having young people excited to be a part of a show?

Oh.

It's great.

Liam and I have known each other for a very long time.

The last time that Liam was on stage here, I think you played my son in A Christmas Story.

Yeah, that was right.

And he was like, ten, maybe.

So it's great working with Liam again.

It's great to work with Maddie for the first time here at Elkhart Civic.

It.

They bring such a great youthful energy to the building.

And it's always really cool to see how a cast becomes kind of a family.

And what has it been like working with your cast mates and getting to know all of them, and kind of tell the story from your guys's perspective?

Well, I mean, I could say for certain we've just been we do a ton of character talks and trying to make sure that we understand what we're playing, but then who the character is underneath.

Like, I'm trying to become everybody's friends so that I can interact better with them on stage.

But a lot of character analysis and understanding who we're playing and why we want to play them the way that we do.

Sure.

And Maddie, do you how have you enjoyed this process?

I've loved getting to know everyone in the cast.

I love spending time with everyone at rehearsals, and my character is the oldest of seven children, so being around all my little siblings is so much fun because we've become like siblings.

Me and him.

We're always just messing around backstage, laughing and making jokes, and I love just being around all the adults in the show as well, because it's fun working with like professionals and like doing professional work with actual people that know what they're doing.

So this this is a classic.

This is a classic.

So is that more of a challenge because you you also want to kind of put your spin on things right.

Yeah.

You definitely feel like there is.

Everybody has seen the Julie Andrews for Plummer movie from I think 63.

Every knows the Sound of Music, every loves The Sound of Music.

But it was really important when we when we do the classics, we like to put our own spin on them.

It's I think it's a very intimate production of The Sound of Music and Dimmer.

Who's the director?

This is her first musical.

She primarily directs a lot of dramas, and so she's really I asked her to direct this because I knew she would really bring a lot of nuance and depth to the material, and she has.

It's just like, we've really had a lot of great discussions about character development that I don't think you always get to have with The Sound of Music, which is kind of.

I think some people think, oh, it's just a classic.

And, you know, the kids come on and they sing and it's nice and but we've, we've had some really, really good discussions and I think, I hope it will show on stage for the audiences.

Yeah.

So it's more than just, oh, do what you saw on TV.

It's really defining the character yourselves.

So what has either been the challenge or the fun of getting in the character that you have and bringing that to life on stage?

Well, so I guess I just have never had such a role where I start out good and end out bad, quite like Rolf, and wanting to understand why he does it and how he feels throughout the whole time.

Because I am not really a good person the entire time, but I do have a fun little musical number, and trying to balance those two things out is a little complicated, and I don't know how to handle that most of the time, but I'm trying to.

He's doing a very good job.

Yeah.

And how about for you?

What has it been like becoming this character that is so well known, but making it your character?

I've had a lot of fun with it.

I feel like in a lot of ways I'm very similar to Liesel.

I mean, I'm the same age as her and she's just very youthful and has a lot of energy and is very joyful.

And I've had a lot of fun bringing my side of, like, my personality into that character.

But there's also the parts where I have to be serious towards the end of the show and actually experience like sadness and like a loss of losing my home.

And that has been a good experience of learning how to like, act in that way, because I've never really had a serious role like this before.

So I've had a lot of fun, like learning how to really act with it and bring out the emotion within the character.

And that's what I was wondering based on.

That answer was like, what is it like?

Like trying to get into the emotional perspective of that character because it is a lot of ups and downs through this movie.

Anybody who knows the story, I mean, there are a lot of ups and downs and you guys have to go on that roller coaster yourself.

What has it been like trying to get into an emotional space that you need to be to play the character?

I feel like for me.

I've just I've just kind of brought myself into the scene and I'm like, okay.

How would how would Liesel react in this?

Like, how would she feel if she was losing her home, if she had to leave everything that she knew for this new life that she has to have?

So I've just had I've just been kind of going with the flow with it and just bringing myself within the scene.

And I think you and Liam especially like if you've seen Sound of Music a lot, Liesel and Ralph are often played by people in their early 20s who are like in college and having.

Liam, you're I'm 17, 17, I'm 17, you're 17.

But but they're playing their teenagers, playing teenagers, and they really bring a lot of honesty to the show.

Because of that, they're able to bring true real life teenage experiences to the stage.

And yeah, there's 16 going on 17 is like one of my favorite moments of the whole show.

It's delightful.

That's pretty cool.

Now let's talk about your character, Max.

So I am a friend of Captain Von Trapp.

I am at the villa, just kind of hanging out with the captain and his soon to be fiancee.

Elsa and I discover that the children have musical talent, so I. I run a music festival, and I'm just kind of.

How can I get the children to perform in my music festival?

And Max is a complicated character because he is.

Max is a very larger than life personality who is in a very difficult situation at the time.

It's 1938 Austria, the Nazis are coming in and he is trying to figure out how he can fit into that world and and survive and thrive under very difficult conditions.

So he's kind of got to be a chameleon and he has to, in the end, pick a side.

So having that moral conflict is is really a nice, fun acting challenge.

Well, we're looking forward to seeing it.

It's it's going to be great.

It's always nice to see a classic, especially somebody's interpretation of it.

So we're excited to see you guys on the stage and look forward to it.

Brock.

We also have the kickoff of a new season, right?

Yes.

So real quickly run through what this coming year is going to look.

The Sound of Music is closing out our season, and we're jumping right into the next season in July with the regional community theater premiere of Dear Evan Hansen.

So that's our first show we're really excited about it.

Just got cast right after that.

We have it's a TBA spot.

We have a couple of TBA spots on our season.

We've really tried to get some new shows that we're having to hold off on announcing for licensing reasons, but we've got a great comedy for September that we're excited to put on, and we'll tell you about that soon.

Then in November, we're doing another classic, Man of La mancha.

It'll be our spin on that classic musical.

Then we've got in February another TBA musical.

It's a brand new show, just Off-Broadway will be one of the first in the area to produce it.

Then we're doing a comedy called For Old Broads, which is about a group of women in a retirement home solving a mystery.

And then we're closing the season out with Peter and the Star Catcher, which is a Tony Award winning origin story of Peter Pan.

Great variety.

Looking forward to it.

How can people get tickets?

People can get tickets by visiting Elkhart Civic Theater.

For Sound of music.

You can get tickets for the show at Civic Theater, or you can call our box office weekday afternoons.

It's (574) 848-4116.

Well, Liam, Maddie and Brock, thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about the upcoming show.

Best of luck and we look forward to seeing you on stage.

Thanks, Kelsey.